Tulikaste

Tuliterä are weird. If I had to sum this project up in one word, I think "weird" would be the best way to do it. There's a lot of variety on their debut LP Tulikaste, but the one constant is the spacey feel to the music. Do I like it? Well, it's hard to sum up if I like the entire album when every song has a personality so different from the last, but overall I think it's a success.

First things first, I haven't listened to an abundance of instrumental music but that's a factor that can swing both ways. There's no worry about awful vocals or lyrics ruining some masterful instrumentation, but it's also possible that you miss out on a huge part of the music. It's one less dynamic to play with, which obviously leaves a lot of potential for an instrumental project to fall a little flat. There's a lot going on already in Tuliterä's music so the impact isn't always felt, but I do sometimes question if some singing - even something slightly distorted in the background - would have helped to breathe that little bit more life into Tulikaste. It's not exactly dry, but despite all of the atmosphere brought to the table by the keyboards it always feels like something's missing, and it's fairly obvious where the finger ends up being pointed.

There's something I don't like about the guitars. The rhythm section is pretty clunky and generally seems to be there solely to make some noise, although it often fades into the synth and becomes part of the background. It's slightly distracting, but not enough to completely ruin the music. The leads have a tone to them that makes them sound weak. Maybe it was their intention that the guitar loses out to the synth, but if so then it's a decision that I question. Obviously with such large influences from space rock the synths are needed to craft the atmosphere, but I don't think that means the guitar can't be at the forefront. There also isn't much innovation from the direction of the guitar, with most of the work being done by the synth. But while the guitar suffers from being a little underdone, the synth has the complete opposite problem. Too often rather than just creating the distant feeling of being deep in space we're bombarded with all sorts of effects, not always with a negative impact but often making everything seem a little cheesy and overdone.

The one thing that Tuliterä never get wrong are the ambient sections. This is probably the album's saving grace. The band are very good at choosing when to implement each feature so as to compliment what's already there, as demonstrated brilliantly on the opening track 'Percolator' which is entirely ambient. I got excited hearing that, thinking that the whole album would be more of the same spacey ambient brilliance. Sadly that's not how it plays out, but the ambient sections do play a large role in many tracks, particularly in the buildup of 'Voidborn' and as an interlude in the fourteen minute epic 'All-Seeing Delirium'. These parts always capture the feeling of space so much better than anywhere else on Tulikaste just because of their minimalist nature. Maybe more of this would have been boring, but they're played so masterfully when they crop up that I can't help but feel Tuliterä would be able to pull it off.

Having listened to Tulikaste a few times over I can conclude that it's not bad, but I wouldn't say it's great either. The synth is too dominant and the guitar doesn't play enough of a role, at least for my liking, and the sci-fi feel is always a tad too exaggerated. 'Voidborn', 'Firedew' and 'Percolator' are all excellent tracks that capture everything that I feel this album should, but the other six are hit and miss.